Environmentally Friendly Zombies

Rating: 8/10 (28 June 2003)

Despite being very intense, "28 Days Later" is a zombie movie you can take your (less sensitive) friends to. It's an odd film, in that it isn't terribly odd at all. It is photographed on video and shot and edited in a contemporary, slick manner that creates the illusion of immediacy. Still, in it's own way, it is nearly as chaste as a Hammer film. Not too surprising given England's "Video Nasties" laws, which could be partly the motivation for changing the zombie rule book -- a zombie picture for a country that doesn't look kindly on zombie pictures. In fact, as has been mentioned elsewhere, "28 Days Later" has less in common with the undead and more with the novel (not the film) "Day of the Triffids."
Having circumvented Britain's tender sensibilities, and having added some new editing and filming tricks, Danny Boyle does an excellent job of recapitulating the best of George Romero, including his earliest horror effort, "The Crazies." I'm not saying this as a criticism, though it does remove some of the film's potential novelty. It is unlikely that the plot will surprise you or leave you, like Romero's films did, with that desire to have your soul cleansed with bleach. The real rage that is missing in "28 Days Later" is George Romero's apparent loathing of human beings in general and the stupid and angry in particular -- the sense that everyone is a zombie, bitten or not.